Beyond Ridiculous. . .
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Donald Dumps on Martha
By Josh Grossberg 1 hour, 14 minutes ago
The Donald's not happy with his new apprentice.
In an interview with ABC Radio, Donald ***** fingered
Martha Stewart as the culprit for the ratings slide of The Apprentice, saying her spinoff, The Apprentice: Martha Stewart, has eaten into his audience.
"The numbers are still good," the hamster-haired mogul said. "I think there was confusion between Martha's Apprentice and mine. And mine continues to do well and, as you know, the other one has struggled very severely."
Which as Martha would say, is not a good thing.
Viewership for *****'s Apprentice had fallen steadily from its launch as a top 5 show during the 2003-04 season, when it averaged 20.7 million. The second season was witnessed by 16.1 million and the third season slipped to 14 million.
But now with two editions running simultaneously, the kinder, gentler Martha-fronted show on Wednesdays and *****'s original vintage on Thursdays, The Apprentice franchise doesn't appear worthy of long-term employment.
Despite *****'s "the numbers are still good" spin, the audience for the fourth season is down to just 10 million, a drop of 40 percent from last year.
The Apprentice: Martha, which premeried Sept. 21, has been an even bigger disappointment, averaging a meager 6.6 million viewers this season.
Both shows are suffering against top-flight competition: Apprentice: Martha faces off against ABC's Emmy-winning hit Lost, which ranks third in total viewership this season with 22.6 million; The Apprentice, meanwhile, continues to lose viewers to this season's most watched show, CBS' CSI, which averages 28.6 million viewers.
***** is not alone in playing the blame game. For the past several weeks, Apprentice producer Mark Burnett has been second-guessing NBC programmers for schedule both editions on back-to-back nights.
"In hindsight, two nights in a row each week is hard to invest [for viewers]," Burnett told the New York Post. "Thirty-two characters are a lot to follow in this format."
The producer was further peeved when NBC flip-flopped Apprentice: Martha with the Jerry Bruckheimer-produced
Pentagon drama, E-Ring, moving the latter to the 8 p.m. slot and the former to 9 p.m., against ABC's Lost juggernaut.
Burnett groused that switcheroo would benefit E-Ring more than Stewart's series. He also complained that the testerone-fueled E-Ring would be a poor lead-in for Apprentice: Martha. NBC disagreed, saying that the Stewart show would benefit by not going head-to-head for the female demo with UPN's hit America's Next Top Model at 8 p.m.
So far, Burnett has been right. By getting out of Lost's way, E-Ring's viewership surged by 10 percent. Apprentice: Martha has continued to flounder.
Now, ***** is hinting that the domestic diva may get a pink slip at the end of the season. NBC, Burnett and ***** will jointly decide whether to say "You're fired" to Apprentice: Martha once the current edition ends its run.
As for the 59-year-old billionaire's own future, aside from expecting his first child with wife Melania Knauss (his fifth kid overall), he's committed to presiding over a fifth--and possibly final--installment of The Apprentice, which will air next year.
"We're shooting it as we speak and it'll be very interesting," ***** said. "I think it's a very good show."
Source: E! Online
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***** will just blame anyone for the fact they are getting over his show. I watch both shows, and the fact that they are on back to back nights actually improves my chances of watching both - because it reminds me the next one is on tomorrow night.
I don't understand how something can "eat into your audience" when its not on at the same time. ***** is as asshat.
